Posted: 1/25/2004 4:39:11 PM EDT
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Film Review: Super Size Me Wed January 21, 2004 03:37 AM ET Super Size Me By James Greenberg PARK CITY (Hollywood Reporter) - Following in the footsteps of Michael Moore's work, "Super Size Me" is one of the new generation of documentaries in which the filmmaker becomes the subject. In this case, director Morgan Spurlock had the bright idea that he would eat three meals a day for 30 days at McDonald's and see what happens. The outcome is not a pretty picture, but thanks to Spurlock's oversized and buoyant personality and some pretty nifty filmmaking, the results are as entertaining as they are sobering. Spurlock got started on his journey, which took him to 20 cities, after seeing a news story in which two teenage girls were suing McDonald's, blaming fast food for their obesity. The question of personal responsibility vs. corporate responsibility is a central issue in the film, with corporate deceit taking more of beating. If the documentary has a shortcoming, it is its failure to acknowledge that all obesity is not the result of eating junk food. But a lot of it is in this country, which Spurlock notes is the fattest nation in the world with 100 million overweight people, 60% of whom get no exercise. Spurlock manages to cram in lots of alarming facts and stats with the smart and amusing use of animation and music. For instance, a colorful map of Manhattan sprouts flags indicating each of the 83 McDonald's locations on the 14-mile island. Later, over a split screen of smiley Ronald McDonald commercials, Curtis Mayfield sings the classic "Pusher Man." Spurlock starts out the picture of health, a strapping 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds. Three doctors and a nutritionist, who reappear throughout, examine him and attest to his well-being. But within a few days, he's vomiting out of the window of his car. And it's downhill from there. Spurlock's body goes through a general deterioration that surprises even his doctors in its rapidity. (His girlfriend, a vegan chef, is beside herself.) Gaining weight is just the outward sign; his liver becomes toxic, his cholesterol skyrockets, his libido sags, he gets headaches, and he becomes depressed. In between the daily journal of his gorging, often with supersize portions of Big Macs, fries and soda, Spurlock interviews people on the street, the U.S. surgeon general and a lobbyist for the fast-food industry. Not surprisingly, reps from McDonald's do not return dozens of calls requesting an interview. One of the most distressing stops along the way is at a school in Illinois where kids are fed pizza, soda and sweets to their hearts content. The real value of "Super Size Me" may be as a cautionary tale for kids. It's lively and funny enough to hold their attention while delivering an important message. Director-producer: Morgan Spurlock; Executive producers: J.R. Morley, Heather Winters; Director of photography: Scott Ambrozy; Music: Steve Horowitz, Michael Parrish; Editor: Stela Gueorguieva, Julie Lombardi. Reuters/Hollywood Reporter |
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Dumbass couldn't order a salad. All mcdonalds have them. But I guess eating sensibly and not gaining weight wouldn't end up making a movie that would further his precious little hollywood career. Too bad this idiot didn't choke on the new mcdonald's politically correct french fries. You know, the ones that used to taste the best when they used beef tallow but know have no taste, except for the salt they drown them in. |
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Quoted: Dumbass couldn't order a salad. All mcdonalds have them. But I guess eating sensibly and not gaining weight wouldn't end up making a movie that would further his precious little hollywood career. Too bad this idiot didn't choke on the new mcdonald's politically correct french fries. You know, the ones that used to taste the best when they used beef tallow but know have no taste, except for the salt they drown them in. Hey I love McDonalds fries. |
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[url] http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/entertainmentstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3545438&thesection=entertainment&thesubsection=film&thesecondsubsection=general[/url] Film records effects of eating only McDonald's for a month 25.01.2004 12.00pm - By DAVID USBORNE NEW YORK - Normally sane actors have been known to gain or lose huge amounts of weight for their art. Think of Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary. Directors, of course, never have to undergo such torture. Or so it used to be, until Morgan Spurlock had a bright idea for a film project. The first clue to his particular misery comes in the title of his documentary, which has become the darling of this year's Sundance Film Festival. It is called Super Size Me: A Film of Epic Portions and it is a sometimes comic but serious look at America's addiction to fast food. Spurlock, a tall New Yorker of usually cast-iron constitution, made himself the guinea pig in this dogged investigation into the effects of fast food on the body. He ate only at McDonald's for a month - three meals, every day - and took a camera crew along to record it. If a server offered to super-size his order, he was obliged to accept - and to ingest everything, gherkins and all. Neither Spurlock, 33, nor the three doctors who agreed to monitor his health during the experiment were prepared for the degree of ruin it would wreak on his body. Within days, he was vomiting up his burgers and battling with headaches and depression. And his sex drive vanished. When Spurlock had finished, his liver, overwhelmed by saturated fats, had virtually turned to pate. "The liver test was the most shocking thing," said Dr Daryl Isaacs, who joined the team to watch over him. "It became very, very abnormal." Spurlock put on nearly 12kg over the period and his cholesterol level leapt from a respectable 165 to 230. He told the New York Post: "I got desperately ill. My face was splotchy and I had this huge gut, which I've never had in my life ... It was amazing - and really frightening." And his girlfriend, a vegan chef? "She was completely disgusted by me," he said. Making the film over several months last year, Spurlock travelled through 20 states, interviewing everyone from fast-food junkies to the US Surgeon General and a lobbyist for the industry. McDonald's, for whom the film can only be a public relations catastrophe, ignored his repeated entreaties for comment. Spurlock had the idea for the film on Thanksgiving Day 2002, slumped on his mother's couch after eating far too much. He saw a news item about two teenage girls in New York suing McDonald's for making them obese. The company responded by saying their food was nutritious and good for people. Is that so, he wondered? To find out, he committed himself to his 30 days of Big Mac bingeing. The film does not yet have a distributor and, given the advertising clout of McDonald's, that may prove problematic. But the critics at Sundance seem to have been captivated. Certainly, the film is blessed by good timing. Obesity has in recent months captured headlines as America's new health scourge. The humour of the approach - and Spurlock's own suffering - obviously helps. At the festival in Park City, Utah, he has had teams handing out "Unhappy Meal" bags on the streets with a few "Fat Fun Facts". For instance, one in four Americans visits a fast-food restaurant every day. And did you know that McDonald's feeds more people around the world every day than the population of Spain? The makers have self-rated the film "F" - for "fat audiences". McDonald's has finally been forced to comment. "Consumers can achieve balance in their daily dining decisions by choosing from our array of quality offerings and range of portion sizes to meet their taste and nutrition goals," it said in a statement last week. Spurlock claims that the goal was not to attack McDonald's as such. Among the issues he highlights is the willingness of schools to feed students nothing but burgers and pizza. "If there's one thing we could accomplish with the film, it is that we make people think about what they put in their mouth," he said. "So the next time you do go into a fast-food restaurant and they say, 'Would you like to upsize that?' you think about it and say, 'Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll stick with the medium this time.'" |
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Gee, it takes a real genius to blow the lid off gluttonny, I guess. [rolleyes] I would suspect that at 6'-2", 185 and "strapping", this guy probably ate very structured meals and had a fairly rigorous exercise regimen prior to this, um, undertaking. To go from that to gorging oneself on anything will cause an adverse reaction, I would think. I mean, it's possible that if he had switched to a 6,000 calorie-per-day diet of tofu, without any exercise, he'd be puking soy in a few days, too. I'm no ally of McDonalds, that's for sure. I had a cheeseburger there about 6 weeks ago. Prior to that, it had been at least two years since I had eaten at McDonalds. What I am an ally of, though, is straightforwardness. Perhaps this guy meant to mock Moore's self-serving and wholly inaccurate style of filmmaking, but ended up just copying it. Who knows? Who fucking cares? Yet another movie I won't have to shell out ammo money for. Super Size This! |
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Good luck finding a list of what he actually ate. No doubt he wants to keep secret the fact he ate 7,000 calories and 400 grams of fat per day. He gained 12 kg. in 30 days. 12 kg. = 26.4 lbs. 3,500 calories per pound * 26.4 lbs = 92,400 extra calories for the month. 92,400 / 30 days = 3,080 extra calories per day for 30 days. In order to gain that weight he had to eat 92,400 calories above his break even point for that month. That's 3,080 additional calories per day. So, I'm guessing maybe 6,000-7,000 calories per day total? Say 7,000 per day. That comes out to 11.5 big macs and 385 grams fat per day! Sure, that's a normal day's food. [rolleyes] |
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Quoted: But within a few days, [B]he's vomiting out of the window of his car.[/B] And it's downhill from there. Spurlock's body goes through a general deterioration that surprises even his doctors in its rapidity. ([B]His girlfriend, a vegan chef, is beside herself.[/B]) Gaining weight is just the outward sign; his liver becomes toxic, his cholesterol skyrockets, his libido sags, he gets headaches, and he becomes depressed. Since he's got a "vegan chef" girlfriend and he decided to make this film in the first place I suspect he was looking for a result, i.e. if nothing had happened to him he would have no film. I would not be surprised to find out that he exaggerated the problems McD's caused him. I'm sure it sent his cholesterol through the roof etc, but that's boring on film so he "needed" some stuff like the loss of libido, headaches and depression to make his film more visually appealling and they are health problems that no one can prove/disprove. He would have looked like quite an ass if he had piles of film of him happily putting on a few pounds over a month while slurping down McFlurries. |